Why some advocates say Trump's plan to institutionalize homeless people won't work

Here & Now Anytime

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4.1 • 953 Ratings

🗓️ 30 July 2025

⏱️ 23 minutes

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Summary

A recent executive order from President Trump calls for sending some mentally ill or addicted homeless people to involuntary treatment, known as civil commitment. Los Angeles homelessness expert John Maceri explains more. And, both Democratic and Republican lawmakers are calling for Trump to address the hunger crisis in Gaza. Nahal Toosi, senior foreign affairs correspondent with Politico, unpacks how the U.S. attitude toward Israel's war in Gaza is shifting. Then, after Harvard University freshman Sarah Silverman's mezuzah went missing from her dorm doorway, the police investigated the incident as a "bias crime," and Trump cited it as a civil rights law violation. Silverman joins us to explain why she thinks Trump's crackdown on Harvard and other universities does not curb antisemitism.

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0:00.0	Support for NPR and the following message come from the Walton Family Foundation, working to create access to opportunity for people and communities by tackling tough social and environmental problems.
0:11.5	More information is at walton family foundation.org.
0:16.9	WBWR Podcasts, Boston.
0:23.6	It's interesting that we are mandating people into institutions and into mandated treatment in facilities that don't exist.
0:32.8	President Trump has signed an order to make it easier for cities to institutionalize unhoused people without their consent.
0:47.7	It's July 30th, and this is here and now anytime from NPR and WBUR Boston.
0:53.9	I'm Kalyani Saxena.
0:58.2	Today on the show, we'll examine whether American politicians
1:01.9	are shifting their stance on Israel's war
1:05.0	as the humanitarian crisis and starvation in Gaza continues to worsen.
1:11.0	Some of those kids are, that's real starvation stuff. I see it. And you can't fake that.
1:17.4	And we'll spend some time with a Harvard student who unexpectedly found herself embroiled in the
1:24.0	university's fight with the Trump administration. So I do believe that anti-Semitism is a problem at Harvard and other college campuses.
1:31.2	I don't feel that the Trump administration's efforts are currently the best way to combat anti-Semitism on the college campus.
1:38.8	The administration's current actions are actually going to hurt our lives rather than help us.
1:43.8	But first, there's another executive order from the Trump administration you should be paying
1:48.9	attention to. Last week, President Trump signed an order that would make it easier for states
1:54.3	and cities to involuntarily send some unhoused people to mental health and drug treatment
2:00.5	facilities. Now, the administration
2:03.0	says that the order will quote, restore public order and is intended to combat homelessness in the
2:09.7	U.S. I want to go through some quick numbers here. According to an estimate from the National
2:14.3	Alliance to end homelessness, a record high number of 256,000 people
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